Who played how and with whom?. All candidates won their matches convincingly thanks to the inspiring performances of their leaders. Argentina – Algeria 3:0, Messi has a hat-trick. France – Senegal 3: 1, Mbappe has a brace (and perhaps, The most beautiful goal tournament currently). Norway – Iraq 4: 1, Haaland also has a brace. Austria won over Jordan (3:1).
A separate fact from the fans. Thanks to yesterday’s hat-trick, Messi repeated Miroslav Klose’s record for total World Cup goals – now both players have 16; The Argentine’s next goal will make him the only top scorer in the history of the tournament. However, 27-year-old Mbappe, who already has 14 goals and probably at least the next World Cup, will have to overtake Leo sooner or later.
What they talk about on social networks. In the match with Algeria, Messi scored not only a hat-trick, but also a very controversial episode: in the first half, the Argentine hit the Algerian defender with his spikes from behind and knocked him down. The referee did not even show Messi a yellow card, and the video assistant referee did not intervene.
The incident sparked another round of the eternal debate about how stars are allowed to be on the field more than others: many commentators Express I’m sure an ordinary footballer would have been sent off immediately for this foul. Algeria national team coach Vladimir Petkovic said: “There is no point in commenting on hypothetical situations now, but everyone saw that, including me.”
Non-football picture of the day. Jordanian fans watch their team’s first World Cup match in the fan zone set up in the 2nd-century Roman amphitheater in the country’s capital, Amman.
Next in the program. Today are the final matches of the first round. The first match of the day (and possibly the entire group stage) will start at 23:00 Moscow time: England – Croatia. Portugal will play against the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is a good opportunity for Cristiano to score a brace as well. Uzbekistan will be the last to enter the match – the only team from the former USSR that qualified for the tournament will play against Colombia.